Airing dirty laundry

Rayma Silvers/Tribune Photo Fort Scott High School student Sterling Braun scans the many Clothesline project T-shirts displayed in the foyer at the high school, each depicting a situation of violence or abuse local students have faced. [Click to enlarge]

The shirts that have been displayed for all to see are not soiled with dirt and stains. These shirts bear the grime of violence and abuse.

FSHS's Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) recently conducted a Clothesline Project, which is a national program created to produce a visual awareness of violence against women. According to FCCLA sponsor Rita Nienstedt, after she and several members of the local chapter attended a district FCCLA meeting about abuse, Nienstedt explained the Clothesline Project to her students. Following Nienstedt's explanation of the project, her students became excited about the program. In fact, It was the students who planned the local project, Nienstedt said.

According to the Clothesline Project's Web site, www.clotheslineproject.org, in 1990, a coalition of women's groups in Cape Cod, Massachusetts created the project to help educate people and break the silence about violence against women.

"One of the women, visual artist Rachel Carey-Harper, moved by the power of the AIDS quilt, presented the concept of using shirts -- hanging on a clothesline -- as the vehicle for raising awareness about this issue. The idea of using a clothesline was a natural. Doing the laundry was always considered women's work and in the days of close-knit neighborhoods women often exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging their clothes out to dry," the Clothesline Project Web site said.

Nienstedt said FCCLA passed out surveys to students and staff at the high school, which allowed participants to tell about any abuse that they have endured. Some also shared stories of abuse that had happened to family members or friends.

After the surveys were turned back in, Nienstedt wrote the students' comments on different colored shirts. If an act of violence was about battery or assault, she wrote the comment on a yellow shirt. If a death occurred the comment was written on a white shirt. Red, pink and orange shirts were used to record rape or sexual assault that was committed by a non-family member, and blue or green shirts were used to record sexual assault that was committed by a family member. Nienstedt wrote any acts of violence toward a male on gray shirts, and purple shirts were used to tell about violence that occurred because of someone's sexual orientation. According to Nienstedt, there were more reported acts of battery and assault than any other type of violence.

After Nienstedt prepared the shirts with comments, two anti-violence groups, Students Against Violence Through Education (SAVE) and Men for Violence Prevention (MVP), from Pittsburg State University made presentations to the FSHS student body. At the assembly, the T-shirts were hung along the FSHS gymnasium railing for the students to see. The members of SAVE spoke to the female students in the FSHS auditorium while the members of MVP spoke with the male students in the FSHS gymnasium. Separating the students, Nienstedt said, allowed the presentations to be more specialized in its content.

FCCLA President Trinnady Sale said she thinks the Clothesline Project has been beneficial to the students at the high school.

"I think students are more aware -- more open about talking about it (abuse)," Sale said.

Nienstedt added that some of the students who have stopped to read the shirts have been deeply affected.

"I've seen some tears shed over them (the shirts)," she said. "The students have really been stopping and reading them."

According to Nienstedt, Elaine Buerge, a member of the Phoenix Downtown Redevelopment Committee, expressed interest in having the T-shirts displayed in some of the windows in downtown Fort Scott's buildings. Buerge said that the community needs to be aware of how many people are affected by this type of violence, according to Nienstedt.

At the present time, there are an estimated 500 Clothes Line projects nationally and internationally with an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 shirts, according to the Clothes Line Web site.